San Francisco in the summer...most think of sunny California skies and warm breezes but many have not been to Northern California, where summer often means cooler temperatures and crazy dense fog. This is that time of year when those awesome shots of the San Francisco skyline, Bay Bridge and the world famous Golden Gate Bridge can be photographed peaking out of endless layers of smooth, rolling fog.

On this day, the city by the bay was proving to be as dynamic as ever. As our group of 14 photographers met at Baker Beach for orientation, and to kick off a full day of shooting and learning, the fog was present, but very quickly giving way to sunny skies and really nice, warm temps.

We spent a few minutes getting to know one another and talking about the plans for the day, we set out for our first shoot on Baker Beach. We spent the first 30 minutes of this workshop working with everyone to learn the skill levels and gear, then helping them capture some of the great late afternoon light that we found the Golden Gate Bridge basking in.

From Baker Beach we headed to one of the most photographic locations in the city, Fort Point. This 100+ year old for sites at the base of the south tower of the Golden Gate Bridge and offers a variety of fantastic lighting situations to learn how to use Aperture settings for creativity and long exposures to absorb the dimly lit areas such as the powder room and long arched corridors of the canon levels.

With cameras already full of great images, it was time for a short break so we headed so Sausalito for some great eats. Once everyone was done with dinner, we packed up and headed out to Rodeo Beach, one of the gems of the Marin Headlands. We made a short hike out to the sea stacks and worked on using high apertures and slower shutter speeds to capture the motion of the ocean, and some of the images really came out great.

Last stop of the night...the grand overlook of the Golden Gate Bridge. This is one of those vantage points that, even though you've been 100 times before, is always awe inspiring. Even though it was a bit windy, and chilly, everyone quickly forgot about the weather and we captured great shot after shot, and kept shooting as the light faded past the blue hour and into the darkness of the night.

With camera chips full and batteries funning out of juice, we called it a night, packed up our gear and headed back to return everyone to the cars.

Until next time...Stephen, Scott and the rest of the Aperture Academy team!

What an awesome workshop!!! Thank you Stephen & Scott and everyone else in the group for an amazing day!!! I have a permanent smile on my face since I saw what awesome images we got this weekend!!! AMAZING!!! Thank you for sharing all your secrets & showing us what beautiful photos really are :-) Looking forward to doing it again soon!!!

Samantha - August 2nd, 2011 (3:40pm)

Thanks for a great day! In addition to seeing some really neat spots that i hadn't seen before, I got some really great tips from Stephen and Scott. The day went by so quickly, and I'm really happy with some of the shots i got. If only I had two professionals standing over my shoulder every time! Thanks again!